Nowhere in the segment did Walker mention Sensenbrenner by name.
But that didn't matter.
"It was obvious to people in the audience," Sensenbrenner said. He added, "He was criticizing my vote on a very controversial issue."
Walker repeated some of his talking points on the border wall declaration at a "Pints and Politics" event sponsored by the Milwaukee County Republican Party on March 15.
Not long after,
Kathy Kiernan, chairwoman of the Republican Party's 5th Congressional District Caucus, called Walker's folks to let them know that he was no longer welcome at their annual meeting at the
Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Milwaukee. She declined to comment when asked about the matter.
Walker responded to the slight by calling Sensenbrenner directly. Walker has been making the rounds at the caucus meetings to thank them for their past support, having already spoken at five of these.
Neither Sensenbrenner nor Walker's spokesman would repeat what was said in their private conversation.
But the tête-à-tête did not ease the tensions.
It didn't help, a source close to the situation said, that Sensenbrenner's GOP caucus has invited Walker to attend its annual meeting each year since 2011, but he never made it. This year, however, Walker invited himself to the event.
Sensenbrenner said the gatherings serve a specific purpose.
"The caucuses in the five districts of the Republican congressmen are basically for the Republican congressmen to end up securing the base that supports them in their election," Sensenbrenner said. "And we all won."
Unlike Walker, it went without saying.
Sensenbrenner said he has made it clear why he opposed the Republican president on the emergency declaration. He said he has voted for every effort to build a physical barrier along the Mexican border, including a 2005 immigration bill that passed the House but not the Senate.
But the national emergency declaration was unnecessary, he said. Trump eventually vetoed the congressional resolution.
"Emergency declarations have been used by presidents since (Jimmy) Carter basically to deal with issues that Congress could not legislate quickly enough to make sure the issue was properly handled," Sensenbrenner said. "This is not one of those."
Many have learned over the years not to get on the wrong side of Sensenbrenner.
Who can forget the time he decided he had heard enough during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on reauthorizing the Patriot Act in 2005? While witnesses shared stories of abuses at Guantánamo Bay,
he got up in the middle of the meeting, killed the lights, turned off the microphones, shut down the C-Span feed and marched his fellow Republicans out of the room.
And there were the times he repeatedly banged a gavel and admonished his political opponents to "be respectful"
during town hall meetings near Milwaukee in 2017.
"This whole thing is just incredibly petty," said a Walker ally of the decision to keep the ex-governor from speaking at the caucus meeting.